Russ Dagon, Senior Vice President of Resort Development for Universal Creative, talks about what is coming in 2018 for the new Aventura Hotel, under construction as Universal Orlando’s tallest hotel to date. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Russ Dagon, Senior Vice President of Resort Development for Universal Creative, talks about what is coming in 2018 for the new Aventura Hotel, under construction as Universal Orlando’s tallest hotel to date. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Among the expanded offerings in the market this year will be establishments tied to major entertainment brands. They’ll be opening with a renewed emphasis on personal technology and outside-the-450-square-foot-box thinking, planners and experts say.

In a high-visibility spot along Interstate 4, Universal Orlando is building Aventura, a glass, curvy, 16-story, 600-unit hotel. When it opens in August, the resort’s on-property room total will hit 6,200.

“It’s a clean, contemporary product,” said Russ Dagon, senior vice president for resort development with Universal Creative. “This is a place that you can go and unwind and really relax at the end of the day.”

Aventura, Universal’s sixth project with Loews Hotels & Resorts, will be capped with a rooftop bar where patrons can peer at Universal’s theme parks and beyond.

“The views of downtown Orlando from the rooftop are fantastic,” Dagon said. “We can see some of our future projects … the old Wet ‘n Wild site is very visible from where we are.”

Universal has announced plans for 2,800 more rooms in two hotels slated to open in 2019 on the corner of International Drive and Universal Boulevard, where its former water park operated.

Aventura will be Universal’s most technologically advanced hotel, Dagon said. Each room will have a tablet empowered to control lights, television, thermostat, pizza orders and more. The property will feature a virtual-reality game room, too.

“It’s not traditional, put a quarter in and play Pac-Man,” Dagon said. “You’re wearing a virtual headset and kind of exploring environments.”

Using technology to improve the guest experience will be a continuing trend, said Richard J. Maladecki, president of Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association.

“Individuals in their 20s are looking at technology in all aspects of their life,” he said. “The lodging industry will be accommodating those requests and those desires.”

Although the market continues to gain rooms, topping the 120,000 mark, the supply isn’t outpacing the demand and that should continue to be the case this year, said Jan Freitag, senior vice president of lodging insights for STR, which monitors the hospitality industry.

“We’re projecting that in 2018, occupancy is basically going to be flat – down 0.1 percent -- and that room rates are going to grow 3 percent … So still very healthy performance,” he said.

That works out well for operators, he said.

“Hoteliers were very good about monetizing on the fewer available rooms because hotels were so full,” Freitag said.

Interest is already high in the 187-room hotel that’s part of the Margaritaville Resort Orlando, said Jim Bagley of Encore Capital Management, developer of the $750 million project. That’s been bolstered by devotees of the brand and its laid-back atmosphere.

“Our hotel demand list is probably more than we can handle for the first six months that we’re open, frankly,” Bagley said. Interest for weddings, reunions and other large gatherings have exceeded expectations, he said.

The Margaritaville hotel, set to open in November, eventually will be surrounded by a water park, 300 timeshare units, 1,000 vacation homes and retail space on U.S. Highway 192, west of Kissimmee. It will have a “very tropical” theme, Bagley said.

“I think what’s going to differentiate the newer hotel product is the ability to adjust the experience,” Bagley said. “It’s everything that happens outside the room.”

All Margaritaville hotel rooms “will feature balconies with approximately 7-foot depth so that a guest could really have a full lounge experience rather than a little balcony, a little dinky thing,” he said. “This is something where you can have a full chaise lounge.”

The balconies overlook a 4-acre area with sandy areas and water features, including a zero-entry pool, he said.

The hotel is set to open with smart technology built it and, in the following months, add a wearable technology component, Bagley said.

“The great thing with a new hotel you can get the cabling and the trunk lines prior to closing it up,” he said. “You don’t have to do the retrofit. The retrofitting is painful on these things.”

The Margaritaville site, which once was home to the Florida Splendid China attraction, was picked because of its location.

“When you’re on 192 in the Disney corridor, you feel pretty good about the likelihood of success,” Bagley said.

Scott Brush, an independent hotel consultant based in South Florida, said he was encouraged by changes coming to the 192 area, something he had been monitoring since the ‘70s, he said.

It “is really, honestly, starting to improve,” Brush said. “You need rooms at all different price levels for an area like Orlando.”

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5477; Twitter: @ThemeParks

Margaritaville Resort Orlando

Rooms in the 5-story hotel at Margaritaville Resort Orlando all have balconies that face 4 acres of water features.

Rooms in the 5-story hotel at Margaritaville Resort Orlando all have balconies that face 4 acres of water features. (Margaritaville Resort Orlando)